Electronic devices based on “plastic” components such as organic thin film transistors (TFT), organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), printable circuits, organic photovoltaic devices, capacitors, and sensors have received much attention in the past few years. Similar to inorganic material-based electronics, organic-based devices can operate efficiently and at high speed if both p-type (where the majority charge carriers are holes) and n-type (where the majority charge carriers are electrons) semiconductor materials exhibit high carrier mobility and stability over time under ambient conditions and can be processed in a cost-effective manner. The electronic structure of most organic semiconductors consists of delocalized π orbitals within a molecular/polymeric a framework that mainly constitutes sp2 hybridized carbon atoms and to some extent, heteroatoms such as sulfur, nitrogen, and oxygen.
To date, optimized organic materials are mainly p-type semiconductors. In contrast, n-type organic semiconducting materials are limited to a handful of small molecules and polymers. Among the limited number of n-type semiconductors, most suffer from drawbacks including poor stability in air and poor solubility in common organic solvents, which limit the type of manufacturing process (e.g., printing deposition) that can be used with these n-type semiconducting compounds.
Accordingly, there is a desire in the art for new air-stable and solution-processible n-type organic semiconductor materials that can be integrated in various device designs including, but not limited to, complementary circuits, organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic photovoltaics, capacitors, and sensors.